


Bet on It (Bet on Me)

by rudeandtotallyginger (orphan_account)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, College Radio AU, M/M, New York Islanders, New York Riveters, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-04-25
Packaged: 2018-06-04 10:11:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6653746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/rudeandtotallyginger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Tavares runs a college radio station. Sam Gagner is pledging a fraternity. They meet in the only way possible, through song requests.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bet on It (Bet on Me)

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like this is okay, and I may write a sequel from Sam's point of view sometime soon. Just had to get this out because the Islanders made the second round and I was so excited! Find me on tumblr at [tjwhoashie](http://tjwhoashie.tumblr.com/) and let me know what you think, or if you just want to talk about hockey in general, that's what I'm there for!

**TUESDAY:**

John settled in for his shift at the station quickly and efficiently, with lightning accuracy. Pulling CDs and plugging in his lucky bright orange headphones, he logging into the DJ program on the computer monitors in front of him. While he lets the last song in rotation finish out, he hums a bit and tries to get himself excited for the show, to chase away the butterflies in his stomach that always seem to show up just before airtime.

He’s been told he’s got a calming voice, and that’s mainly why they put him on so late, but John has found himself loving this little hour block three times a week, and the small following he has on campus consisting of late night study hounds, overemotional people who call in and ask to hear Adele before telling their life story, his few friends from the hockey team (where he’s currently calling games for the radio on weekends), and his sisters.

John’s basically wanted to do radio ever since he stepped into student media and watched Cal argue with a band about how badly they played that night, before getting into a fistfight with their manager after the interview. Since then, the radio station has grown considerably. After Nabby left, an exchange student named Nana took his place as the tech manager, and Kyle was training so many interns he was going out of his mind. John avoided training itself, but being captain kept him in the spotlight around them.

He starts the show with a simple greeting, a joke about the song he’s about to play, and then he begins to play something from the new Lucius album. He checks his levels, and sighs, thinking about what he’s going to say next break and hoping to hear a request, he doesn’t want to burn out all the good music he’s found this week too quickly.

That’s when the text pops up on his screen, and he pulls it up wordlessly. It’s from someone with an area code that matches his, but it simply reads, “This sucks, can you play high school musical instead? That’d be better.”

John blanks on how to respond at all, and instead doesn’t look at the request text, instead queueing up “Someone Like You” to play for Tiffany next. 

**THURSDAY:**

On Thursdays, John follows up Brooke Ammerman and Casey Cizikas show, and they run late, getting into a huge argument about how much time it’s appropriate to spend getting ready in the mornings, with Casey on the side of upwards of an hour, while Brooke being under. They’ve got a big audience all in on the argument so John just resigns himself to a short 10 o’clock hour and possibly letting his time run over instead of letting it return to vault play, depending on how many people are listening.

The argument continues for ten minutes before Casey and Brooke finally sign off, and let John into the studio. It takes less than twenty minutes for John to get a phone call, and he hasn’t said anything really edgy or invited people to call. He’s just praying it’s not Tiffany, he always seems to be talking to her about her life and how she needs to take time off from dating. It’s not Tiffany, it’s a male voice as soon as John breathes out his greeting.

“Hello, you’ve reached the on campus radio here at Columbia, what can I get on the radio for you tonight?” he asks, basically reading from the script. He’s nowhere near as candid as Cal or even Kyle would be, John tries to do everything by the book.

“Yes, can you play ‘Bet on It,’ the song from 2007 cult hit ‘High School Musical 2’?” the voice on the other end asks, quickly. John sighs.

“No.” he says, simply, and plans to hang up.

“C’mon man, I’m pledging a frat and it would mean the world to me, can’t you do me a favor? Dude, I’ll totally pay you.” The guy starts rambling as John slams the phone into the receiver, and starts playing something from Liima’s album, one of his and Frans’ personal favorites.

He then tries his best to get the tune of the stupid song from High School Musical out of his head, which fails miserably.

**SATURDAY** :

Turning up for work on Saturday nights is a chore, but John tries his best not to feel bad about not going to parties by telling himself he wasn’t really invited anyways, that it was just Boych being a nice guy and they didn’t actually want John, who was technically their boss, at whatever rager they’re throwing.

John hosts a live call in show on Saturday nights, where you can tell him the story of your night and he’ll find a song that fits your needs to play on the radio. He answers a few calls and plays an assortment of party jams, before hooking up a man named Patrice with Kernkraft 400 for him and his buddies at this party, where they decided to listen in as fun. He’s heard from Patrice before, and they’re friends, but nothing can prepare him for the call he gets next.

He should have realized when he read the area code, but for some strange reason he assumed it was Stammer or PK calling in to tease him, not the boy he’d heard so much from lately.

“Hello, I’m Sam, and I’d really like to hear your favorite song from High School Musical. As previously mentioned, I’m pledging a fraternity and Claude would really appreciate it if you could hit us with one of those truly amaz-“ John cuts him off, after the caller, Sam, goes on a tangent.

“No.” John says, but he knows he’s going to have to cave. It’s the rules of the show, find something for the caller.

He can hear Cal snickering over his headphones, the production room must be filled with people he knows.

“Aw, c’mon. I’ll take it as a personal favor! I always repay those…” Somehow, the voice on the line has become suggestive, and John blushes bright red as his coworkers cackle on the headphones. He queues up a song.

“Whatever, I’ve found a great song for you, you’re going to love it.”

Sam cheers on the other end of the line, and John lets himself slip, “You owe me.” He states, before hitting the play button and taking his mic off air.

The room fills with Zac Efron’s voice telling everyone to “Get their head in the game,” and John gets back on the phone line.

“Enjoy the song.” He states, before hanging up.

“Wait!” Sam yells, but it’s too late. John’s already hung up.

**TUESDAY:**

John goes into the studio refreshed, but the weird look on Cal’s face tells him something’s up.

“There’s someone in your office.” Kyle tells him, cryptically. John takes off to see who could possibly have his coworkers in such a mood.

He enters his office to find a boy, about John’s age, in a Sigma Nu shirt. John holds out a hand to greet him, but the other man’s voice seems so familiar, and then it clicks.

“So, why the obsession with Zach Efron in the 2000s?” John asks the boy he now recognizes as Sam, the source of all his pain this past week.

“It was a frat thing, I swear. I don’t actually like High School Musical that much. I just, um, I guess I came in to apologize and see if, um, I can do anything for you? Since I owe you in all?” Sam’s got a weird twinkle in his eye, and John’s curious, but kind of worried.

“Well, there’s nothing really I need, Sam. I was joking, mostly.” John states, before Sam smiles.

“If you want to do me a favor, you can go out with me sometime. I mean, you’re cute and you totally put up with my crazy antics and- Yeah, you’re probably not even into dudes, I’ll just, I’ll show myself out.” Sam starts to get up, reading John’s slightly shocked face completely wrong.

“Sure.” John says, before he realizes that he’s just told this boy who’s asked him out to take a hike.

Sam’s halfway through the exit of student media when John’s brain catches up to him.

“I mean, sure, I’ll go out with you. But I can’t do that without a phone number.”

Sam’s smile nearly blinds him.


End file.
